Last week, Instagram approved Plann for auto posting and we couldn’t be any more freaking excited to share the news with you!
Not only has it been our most requested feature for years, but it’s also been one we’ve been tirelessly trying to bring you for years too.
Pour yourself a cuppa, this one’s a great story with the most amazing plot twist —and proof that anything can happen!
The Beginning
In 2017 I applied and applied for Plann to become an official marketing partner of Instagram, only to be rejected every time with no reason.
This partnership cherry-picked developers to have extra features, including being able to auto-post directly to Instagram, something I wanted to make sure Plann stayed competitive. Essentially, this program would choose the big winners of the social tech landscape.
After getting on a plane (those were the days!) I lived in San Francisco as Nigel-no-friends for months and months, finally hustling a meeting in person at Silicon Valleys Instagram HQ with someone in their API team (I really did this, and convinced a security guard to take a photo!)
The Setback
The official answer was Plann wasn’t big enough yet, and hinted that Venture Capitalist funding would have helped. 6 months later Plann reached viral growth levels and from back home I was desperate to try again.
Unlocking auto post meant we could do the heavy lifting while our people were stuck in meetings, on the road, or just needed a social media holiday. I was excited to apply and get building because I was hating having to answer thousands of emails and DMs explaining we were still working on it.
Here’s where I found Instagram had officially closed applications to the partnerships program. There was nowhere to apply, no-one to speak with. I was deflated, frustrated and I remember unimaginable anger looking at the ‘no longer available’ page. With hundreds of thousands of people relying on us to help with their social media businesses, giving up wasn’t an option.
The Perseverance
For the next few years, I tried everything. I went to Boston, NYC, Seattle and LA events, networked until I hated free swag, LinkedIn stalked, everyone pointing me to the same ‘it’s over’ webpage.
I poured everything into building a superior platform with my team to those cherry-picked, and it worked. Plann is, by far, the most superior planning and social media platform in the market. We stayed competitive, relevant and built a real sustainable business by focusing on what matters – solving all the reasons people hate social media, making it easy.
The Victory!
After so many years, it finally happened last week!
I can still barely believe it, but auto pilot is now live in the product (on our Desktop and ios apps) right now!
Throwback photo of me in San Francisco in 2017, willing this moment to happen!
And….my very first auto post (of course with my iso floof, Peach!)
We made it. We did it. Thank you for believing in Plann with us!
Take auto posting for a spin
Have you tried it out yet? Login to your account or sign up for your free trial here.
I’d love you to take auto post for a whirl and share what you think. We L-O-V-E seeing it out in the wild! Tag @plannthat so we can reshare your work!
PS. If you’d like to learn how to use auto posting to put your social media on autopilot (and put your feet up!) join us at our next live Plan with Plann session on March 1st PST. Our social expert, Greta Rose, will be walking you through how to use Plann to schedule all of March’s content during a live event, not to be missed!
